The present invention relates to an integrated voting system which is electronic at all stages in the system and, more particularly, to a voting system with a reusable, non-volatile memory module transportable between different levels of the election system to pass data therebetween, and relates further to improved features for determining and verifying that the appropriate ballot form is being used at a particular voting station. The present invention also relates to verifying that the voter""s ballot selection displayed to the voter is identical to the ballot image recorded electronically, to improved storage for between election equipment management and testing, and to an improved absentee voting system.
Voting systems in place around the world typically involve either paper ballots or mechanical counters. The paper ballots used in some areas may be as simple as a form onto which the selected candidate""s name is written or on which an X is placed to indicate the candidate selected by the voter. Alternatively, the paper ballot may have holes punched therein adjacent to the desired candidate or ballot issue. With such ballots, the only time the voter is required to write on the ballot is if a write-in candidate is selected. There are many disadvantages to such paper ballot systems. One is the fact that paper ballots can become physically damaged, or altered, between the time the voter makes the selection and the time a ballot-counting machine eventually reads the voter""s selection on the ballot. Another disadvantage is that voters can inadvertently punch the hole or place the X next to a different candidate than was intended by the voter. When this goes unnoticed by the voter, the voter ends up casting a vote which was not intended. In addition, write-in votes must be manually read by an election official, which is time consuming and may be very difficult, depending upon the legibility of the voter""s handwriting. In many cases, the name written in cannot be read and the vote does not count. Also, paper ballots must be custom printed for each election, with at least one ballot printed for each potential voter. Since these ballots are specific to a particular election, the costs are significant for each election.
Many other election systems include a system of mechanical switches and levers which are actuated by the voter to increment one of a plurality of mechanical counters. At the end of the election, the counters for each of the candidates at each of the voting booths is tallied and the results are reported to the jurisdictional headquarters. While this system solves some of the problems of the paper ballots, the machines required at each of the voting booths are fairly expensive and have many mechanical parts which require routine maintenance and repair. In addition, these machines are heavy and cumbersome to move and set up. Another disadvantage is the manual tallying of the counters required at the precinct level and the manual reporting of the results to the jurisdictional headquarters.
There are a variety of other non-electronic methods for conducting an election. Unfortunately, each suffer from many of the problems discussed above: illegible ballots which must be discarded, votes inadvertently cast for unintended candidates, excessive costs for election consumables, and the ease with which the election results may be altered by tampering.
While some electronic voting systems have been developed to solve some of these problems, none of these proposed electronic voting systems has been successful enough to result in widespread use. In the areas where non-mechanical means for conducting elections are used, the electronic components typically make up only a portion of the overall system so that it is not an integrated system. Thus, some of the steps in the election process are still performed manually.
Some of the proposed electronic systems include a form of transportable memory, which is used to transport data between the jurisdictional headquarters and the precinct. It is believed that all of the transportable memory methods proposed to date require either internal batteries to maintain the data contained therein, or else the memories are physically altered to maintain the stored data. One drawback of the internal battery technique is the risk of power interruption when the batteries lose their charge. In addition, the batteries must be recharged or replaced on a regular basis, adding to the cost of the system. An example of a physically altered memory is an optical disk which can be written to only once for each memory location. Thus, the optical disk must be replaced for subsequent elections, or else the optical disk must have sufficient capacity to store data for multiple elections, at the end of which the optical disk must be replaced. Of course, the cost of these disks is another election consumable cost.
In addition, the transportable memory devices disclosed in the prior art are intended to be transported to a specific precinct as they each contain data relevant only to that specific precinct. Such a system will not operate properly if the wrong transportable memory device is transported to a particular precinct. This would mean, at a minimum, at least two precincts would have their voting terminals incorrectly configured and would, at a minimum, delay opening of the polls at those precincts which were affected. Worse yet, the error might not be discovered and the entire election conducted with the incorrect configuration for some number of precincts. One known system requires two memory modules to complete the voting process at the precinct, further raising the potential for error.
A variety of methods for securing the data in these proposed electronic systems has been disclosed. Most take the form of either redundantly storing the data or disabling the device so that no further data can be written to that device. While redundantly storing data may at first blush appear to add some level of security, it does not protect against writing the wrong data redundantly. In order to be sure that the wrong data is not written, it must be verified as correct prior to writing it redundantly.
Other electronic-based systems include video display screens similar to computer monitors which present the required information to the voter. Such systems require the voter to scroll through the available options to make their selection. This may be confusing to some voters who may become lost and frustrated in the hierarchy of screen formats, so as not to complete their ballot or to erroneously do so. Further, many voters are intimidated by operating computer-based technology and may choose not to vote.
Another electronic-based system includes voting tablets with printed ballot overlays laid on top of the voting tablet. The voter can actuate selected switches from a matrix of switches to make their selections. Unfortunately, as with many of the other systems, the feedback provided to the voter that the desired candidate was selected is disconnected from the data electronically stored regarding the cast ballot in the electronic system. In other words, it is possible that a voter would receive an indication or feedback that one candidate had been selected when actually the system recorded a vote for a competing candidate.
Another problem with most electronic-based systems is the inability to deal with differing ballot styles even within a precinct, wherein certain voters may be eligible to vote on certain races and other voters eligible to vote on other races. Most electronic-based systems must be manually controlled to provide the proper ballot styles to each voter or the proper combinations selected from among many to provide the correct eligibility for the voter. This places undue burden on the operator and presents significant opportunity for error.
Other proposed electronic-based systems include a machine readable card given to each voter. The voter must be given the appropriate card for that voter, and then properly place the card in a voting terminal before they can vote. Because of the possibility of errors in each of these steps, such systems have their drawbacks as well.
It is against this background and the desire to solve the problems of the prior art that the present invention has been developed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved voting system which is electronic and integrated at all levels.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved voting system which has a relatively low number of consumables for each election conducted.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide an improved election system which is highly accurate, both in terms of maximizing the ability of the voter to accurately select their intended candidate and in the ability of the election system to accurately convert the voter""s selection into the final cumulative tally of votes at the jurisdictional headquarters.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide an improved election system which instills confidence in the voting public as to the accuracy and relative difficulty of tampering with the system.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide an improved election system which is easy to use both for the voters and for election officials having little training.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide an improved election system which operates in a variety of environmental conditions, including varieties of ambient lighting, and available connections for power and telecommunications.
It is yet further an object of the present invention to provide an improved election system which is easy to store, easy to set up, and easy to take down.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of this invention shall be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following specification or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities, combinations, and methods particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described therein, the present invention is directed to an electronic voting system including a headquarters unit with a central computer and a plurality of precinct units, each precinct unit including a network controller. The system also includes a plurality of mobile memory units, each of the mobile memory units connectable to the central computer to provide data to and receive data from the central computer and connectable to any of the precinct units to provide data to and receive data from the network controller, wherein the data is stored in the mobile memory unit in at least one memory device that can be written to once and read from many times. The system also includes a plurality of voting stations, each station being in data communication with one of the plurality of precinct units, each voting station including a voting tablet on which a voter can select the candidates and sides of issues to vote on and can cast a ballot by actuating a cast ballot actuator on the voting tablet to cause an electronic ballot image of the voter""s cast ballot to be communicated to the network controller. The network controller provides data representative of the ballot image to the mobile memory unit for storage therein and wherein the mobile memory units are transportable between the precinct units and the central computer to transport data therebetween including representations of the ballot images to the central computer.
The memory device may include flash memory. The memory device may store data magnetically. The data provided to the network controller from the central computer via the mobile memory unit may include a plurality of different ballot styles that may be appropriate for different precincts within the jurisdiction. The electronic ballot image of the voter""s cast ballot may also be stored in the network controller. The electronic ballot image of the voter""s cast ballot may also be stored at each voting station. The voting tablet may include a plurality of display indicators to provide a visible indication to the voter of the ballot selections made by the voter, and the voting tablet further includes a plurality of sensors providing signals representative of the state of the display indicators, the signals providing a redundant indication to authenticate the ballot cast by the voter, the redundant indication of the cast ballot being stored at the voting station. The plurality of voting stations may be connectable to each other with only one of the voting stations directly connected to the network controller to allow the remaining voting stations to be connected indirectly to the network controller through the interconnection of the voting stations. The plurality of voting stations may be daisy-chained together.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system including a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters and a plurality of voting stations communicating with the central computer, the voting stations each including a base with a plurality of voting switches, a plurality of display indicators, and a plurality of sensors, the voting switches providing an indication to the central computer of the ballot cast by the voter, the display indicators providing a visible indication to the voter of the ballot selections made by the voter, the sensors providing signals representative of the state of the display indicators, the signals providing a redundant indication to authenticate the ballot cast by the voter.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system including a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters and a plurality of voting stations communicating with the central computer, the voting stations each including a base with voting switches, the base being receptive of a ballot overlay, the ballot overlay including text or other symbology providing information to the voter relating to the various races and issues to be decided in the election, the ballot overlay further including a coded region thereon with a code representative of a ballot style encoded therein, the base including a code reader proximate to the coded region of the ballot overlay when the ballot overlay is placed in position on the base, the code reader being operational to read the code encoded in the coded region of the ballot overlay and to supply the code to the voting station for configuring the voting system for the ballot style indicated by the code.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system having an operational configuration and a storage configuration. The system includes a plurality of precinct units, each precinct unit including a network controller and a plurality of voting stations, each station being in data communication with one of the plurality of precinct units when said voting system is in the operational configuration, and each station being capable of being placed in data communication with one of the precinct units when said voting system is in the storage configuration.
Each voting station may include an external connector for connection to the network controller that is accessible when the voting station is in the storage configuration.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system including a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters and a plurality of voting stations, each station being capable of eventually communicating data to the central computer, each voting station having a deployed configuration in which the voting station can receive selections from voters and each voting station having a storage configuration in which the voting station folds to a fraction of the largest two-dimensional aspect of the voting station in the deployed configuration when placed in the storage configuration.
Each voting station may include both a voting tablet that can communicate data and a privacy enclosure that at least partially encloses the voting tablet and the voter using the voting tablet. Each of the voting tablet and the privacy enclosure may have a deployed and a storage configuration, and each fold to a fraction of the largest two-dimensional aspect of the voting station in the deployed configuration when placed in the storage configuration.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system including a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters and a plurality of voting stations, each station being capable of eventually communicating data to the central computer, at least one of the voting stations having a remote sensing terminal to receive inputs from a device adapted for use by disabled persons.
The present invention is also directed to an electronic voting system including a central computer for collecting ballots cast by voters and a plurality of voting stations, each station being capable of eventually communicating data to the central computer, at least one of the voting stations having a text-to-speech converter to provide an audio output to voters unable to read a ballot appearing on the voting tablet.
The present invention is also directed to a ballot system including a printed top sheet with symbolic representations of races and contests for a particular election, the top sheet having fields in which a voter can make marks indicating selections for any of the races and contests. The ballot system also includes a corresponding bottom sheet removably attached to the top sheet, the bottom sheet having printed data processing graphical marks and having fields corresponding to the fields on the top sheet. The top sheet and bottom sheet cooperate together to allow the voter marks on the top sheet to be copied onto the corresponding fields on the bottom sheet.
The present invention is also directed to a method for conducting an election, at least in part over a computer network including a central election computer and a plurality of other computers accessible by a voter, the other computers being connected to the election computer through the network. The method includes the steps of receiving identifying information from the voter to authenticate the voter""s identity, verifying the voter""s eligibility to vote in the election and verifying that the voter has not yet voted in the election, serving voter-specific election information to the one of the other computers accessed by the voter, and receiving information from the voter indicative of the voter""s selections for the various races and contests in the election.